Child’s Giving Extends Beyond Border

By the time 11-year-old Veronica Pomeroy sat down to play in a dusty junkyard, surrounded by mountains of castoffs, she seemed tired.

Her trip from Calabasas to serve as an ambassador of America’s charitable children at Christmastime had been long. The morning had been busy with giving more than 100 shoe boxes full of gifts to Mexican children in the poor neighborhood of Bello Horizonte, getting more than 100 smiles and hugs and handshakes in return.

Yet Veronica made her way through the stacks of old cardboard, past the sky-high collection of iron chairs and scrap wood, old batteries and discarded water heaters, past the abandoned cars and clusters of flies, to the little girl who was waiting for her.

And she handed out another Christmas gift.

“This is bubble gum,” she said, taking a handful from the box, while Angelita sat watching and smiling.

“Here’s some crayon and paper. This is some jewelry,” she said and placed a silver-colored plastic necklace with a dangling pink heart around the girl’s neck. And together they sat on a scrap of cardboard and played, Angelita with a doll, Veronica with Lego.

“We appreciate it,” said Angelita’s mother, Concepcion Romero de Rodriguez, watching the girls.

“Not only the gift, but the love with which she gives it.”

To the people of Samaritan’s Purse, a charitable Christian organization that has delivered 2 million shoe boxes full of Christmas gifts to needy children all over the world, Veronica represents the best of American children, and so they invited her to Mexico City to be an ambassador of sorts.

Last year Veronica and her schoolmates at Bay Laurel Elementary School in Calabasas, Lindsay Rich and Lexi Cline, collected nearly 300 boxes of gifts for children in other lands. This year the number rose to 435, and Veronica was chosen to represent not only the North Carolina-based organization in Mexico, but also the hundreds of children across the United States who made up the boxes.

Here at the Iglesia La Libertad, the church of liberty, in Bello Horizonte, Veronica was delivering the gifts and seeing life from the other end of the box. For all that the poverty she saw appeared to overwhelm her, she managed to remain cheerful. She’s had practice, having lived with cystic fibrosis all her own short life.

“I’m happy that they’re happy,” Veronica said after giving away gifts at the church.

Veronica’s mother, Robin, who made the trip with her, said the visit will do what trips like these usually do for people of any age--leave a lasting impression.

“She’s a long way from Calabasas,” said Robin Pomeroy, standing outside the church. “We both are. Whether you’re 11 years old or 44 like me, I don’t think you ever really appreciate your blessings. I think by coming here and seeing how people live and how different it is from how we live, you realize how fortunate we are.”

Veronica took naturally to her ambassadorial role.

In interviews with the media, she likes to give credit to the friends who helped her: “Lexi couldn’t be here, cause she has the chicken pox,” she explained at a news conference before the trip.

And although the only Spanish word she knows is “gracias,” she was not worried about being unable to communicate with the children here.

“I think they’ll just be happy with the box and understand that [we] care,” she said.

The gift box that she packed is a little girl’s version of a life in balance. There’s a neon Slinky, a Beenie Baby--a teddy bear wearing a Santa hat--colored markers, a pack of Life Savers. Then there’s a tube of toothpaste, a purple toothbrush and deodorant.

“I was thinking about what they needed,” Veronica explained. “And what they wanted.”

This year the gift Veronica prepared went to Maria Elena, a 7-year-old who lives in Bello Horizonte. At Iglesia La Libertad, Veronica stood in front of a church full of excited children and gave Maria Elena the gift.

“Gracias,” Maria Elena said, beaming.

As the children tore open boxes, adults watched and smiled, and made sure the children took time to look at the letters and photos of children from America who sent the boxes.

“It’s something very beautiful for the children . . . precioso,” said Humberto Salazar, sounding more like somebody’s parent than a 17-year-old.

He called over his brother Jorge, who clutched his box. A 9-year-old with a wide smile, Jorge opened his box and began an inventory.

“Un carrito,” he said, pulling out a Hot Wheels car. “Un jabon. Un Power Ranger. Un pintura. Un balon.” Until all the items are out of the box, including the pen and the paper, and the soap, and the Nerf football, and the gum. Jorge says he will share his things with his friends Alejandro, Diego, Marcel and Ricardo.

“They share all their things,” Humberto confirmed.

Concepcion Zamarripa is the director of the youth program here. In Bello Horizonte they are trying to reach young people, especially those angry ones who fight and use foul language. The boxes will help because they show the children they are loved, she said.

The mother of Angelita, whose family survives through recycling items in the junkyard, said she could never have afforded to buy the things that came in her little girl’s box. There’s no money for things like that, only for clothes and food. But now the girl, who loves Barney and Mickey Mouse, will have things to play with for a long time to come.

After the visits, Veronica sat in the back of the van, quieter and thoughtful as she returned to a downtown hotel to spend the night.

“It’s bittersweet,” her mother said. “You bring these gifts because you want to make them happy, but then you can’t do more.”